LAFAYETTE, La. – United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced that Christopher Wallace, 25, of Bastrop, La., was sentenced last week (January 10, 2014) by U.S. District Court Judge Elizabeth E. Foote to 65 months in prison and five years of supervised release for attempting to receive child pornography. He pleaded guilty on September 5, 2013.

According to evidence presented at the guilty plea, on January 31, 2011, Wallace began chatting online with a female he believed to be 14 years of age. He asked the girl, who was actually an undercover officer, to perform sexual acts in front of a web camera, while Wallace himself also performed sexual acts in front of the camera. Wallace was attempting to receive the sexually explicit video by using the web camera feature.

Homeland Security Investigations and the Lafayette Police Department conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Luke Walker prosecuted the case. This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a U.S. Department of Justice nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Homeland Security Investigations/Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at (866) DHS-2ICE. Investigators are available at all hours to answer hotline calls. Tips or other information can also be submitted to ICE online at www.ice.gov/exec/forms/hsi-tips/tips.asp. Tips may be reported anonymously.